TIME MANAGEMENT AND DELEGATION

By Cheri Alguire

Remember the "best made plans of mice and men often go astray?" The old adage applies readily to your business plan if you do not manage your time effectively and/or delegate activities when needed. You can have the most inspirational vision, the tightest budget, the most sensible production plan, but if you don’t have the time or resources (staff) to accomplish the goals, you are little better off than when you started.

To better understand the importance of the concept of time management, take a look at how you spend you time when working. Begin with a work day and then expand your analysis to the entire week. How much time do you spend “IN” the business? This refers to the crucial everyday details of the job. It includes the showings, the opens, the listing appointments, and the negotiation of contracts. How much time do you spend on the technical aspects of the business? The accounting, the scheduling, the entering of data and working on files? Without question, this can take the lion’s share of any given work day. However, danger awaits you if that is the case.

Working "ON" the business is vital if your business is to ultimately succeed and cannot be ignored. These tasks include management of the business and visionary activities. It includes mentoring, motivating, training and tracking accountability. It also includes "the big picture" activities like studying, reading, attending speakers and seminars. The problem with working ON the business is that it is too easily set aside for the daily "put out the fire" duties of tending to clients and paperwork. But that is why it is critical to create a physical time management plan that you abide as religiously as your budget. Chart it out, mark it in your Outlook calendar, and pay attention to it.

Similarly, you must think ahead in terms of the number of tasks that have to be completed to successfully make your business run. You cannot do it alone. Again, you cannot do it alone. (At least, not for very long.) Remember early on in the business planning process, we referred you to THE E-MYTH? Revisit it again in order to (re-)learn the lesson of wearing all the hats. Probably the best way to delegate the work load of the business is to create and refer to the resources chart and written job descriptions. If it’s not your job—delegate! If the person responsible isn’t doing the job, confront the problem and replace him/her as needed. You are running a business. Without delegating responsibility, you are doomed to crash and burn. And you won’t be having any fun, either.